Trail Of Blood
by Broken Stone
Summary: A MiamiVegas crossover. The team are on the trail of an elusive serial killer. When he starts murdering in Las Vegas, Calleigh and Ryan are sent to help out.
1. Frustration

Frustration

Horatio was walking to his office when he heard a crash of breaking glass and a familiar voice yelling expletives at full volume.

It was Ryan Wolfe.

He heard Eric's voice murmuring something and Wolfe spat something back in a furious voice. He stepped to the side of the doorway so that he could see and hear them. Neither men noticed him.

'Yeah, I know,' Eric said, surprisingly patient. 'But yelling isn't going to solve anything. Nor is breaking lab equipment.'

'I know!' Ryan snarled.

'Hey, hey!' Eric lifted his hands. 'Don't yell at me, okay?

Ryan controlled his temper with extreme effort. 'I'm sorry. This is – just frustrating.' He punched the table in anger. 'That son of a bitch is laughing at us!' He kicked the table for good measure and buried his head in his hands.

'No luck on the case, then,' Horatio said quietly.

Ryan didn't look up. 'None.'

'We'll keep working on it,' Eric said. 'Don't worry about that, H.'

'That's not what I'm worried about,' Horatio said. 'I'm worried about when he'll strike next.'

Ryan closed his eyes, looking defeated. 'I'm sorry, Horatio,' he said. 'We're no closer to catching this bastard than we were last week.'

'Run me through it,' Horatio said.

Wolfe lent on the table, collecting his thoughts. 'We found no useable DNA at any of the scenes,' he said. 'The killer cleaned up after himself with bleach and detergents that destroyed any DNA evidence we might have got. Took the rubbish and the vacuum bags with him each time.'

'Did you check the inside of the vacuum?' Horatio asked.

Ryan nodded. 'Every time. He cleaned that out, too. Really thoroughly. Every surface polished and cleaned, removing all fingerprints. Nothing on any of the door handles, light switches, nothing. I checked the shower, the sink and the pipes for anything he might have missed. I checked the toilet for any trace. I looked through the entire garbage dump for the building, nothing. I went through the dumpsters of the entire damn block and I didn't get anything.'

Eric shook his head. 'He did, H. I don't think he missed a single trash bag on that street. He's clocked up some serious overtime.' He added, 'As have we all.'

'Let me worry about that,' Horatio said. 'Is there anything you might have missed?'

'I have been over every single crime scene,' Ryan said. 'Two, three times. If there was any trace, an DNA, any other evidence, I would have found it by now. There's nothing.'

'Hence your taking it out on lab equipment,' Horatio said dryly.

'Sorry,' Ryan said.

'Don't be,' Horatio said. 'Maybe we need to take a different track with this. Are you still seeing that reporter?'

'No,' Ryan said, scowling.

'Maybe you could drop her a line, ask her to publicise the murders, see if anyone can come forward with information,' Horatio said.

'I thought you didn't like getting the press involved,' Eric said.

'I don't, but right now we need all the help we can get.'

'Have fun,' Eric said to Ryan, grinning. Ryan was not in a mood to be made fun of but he managed a brief shrug. He looked harassed. Eric didn't blame him. Two months since he had come back to work after his injury and Wolfe hadn't settled back into the work.

'What more can we do?' Ryan asked. He looked miserable and frustrated. Eric was reminded that this might be the first serial killer case that Wolfe had worked. Certainly the most disheartening case.

'He'll make a mistake,' he said to the other CSI. 'They always do.'

'And how long will that take?' Ryan asked, angrily, although Eric knew that the anger was not directed at him personally and so didn't rise to it. He shook his head and sighed. 'I'm sorry, Eric,' he said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. 'I don't know what's got into me.'

'No hard feelings,' Eric said. He was feeling as angry as Ryan but hiding it better. He had noticed that Ryan was not so good at hiding his emotions anymore, and Alexx had professed some concern over his inability to keep control. Even Calleigh had commented. Horatio had, as usual, said nothing, just watched.

'Let's go over this again,' Eric suggested, sitting himself down, aware that Horatio had left silently.

Ryan shook his head. 'I've been over this time and time again. There's nothing we haven't done, no lead we haven't followed, no dumpster left unturned. I don't know what to do next.'

'We pound the pavement,' Eric said. 'You get onto Erika. Then you go home and get some sleep – don't think no one's noticed that you've been sleeping here the past two nights. Calleigh and I will take the neighbourhood of the last victim – see if anyone saw anything. Right?'

'I'll speak to Erika but I'll join you – '

'No,' Eric said sharply. 'You're off the clock until tomorrow. You refuse, I'll get Horatio to send you home. Go, Ryan. Come back when you've got some decent rest.'

Ryan considered arguing then tiredness took over and he nodded. He left the lab looking miserable, tired and as rough as Eric felt.

'That was quite a speech,' Horatio said.

Eric smiled. 'Wasn't it? Think he'll go home?'

'Yes. Maybe you should consider practising what you preach, Eric.'

'Maybe,' Eric agreed. 'But I haven't been sleeping here. Calleigh saw him on the chairs in the waiting room when she came in this morning. Nightshift says he was here the night before, too.'

'Fine, fine. Get us some results, Eric. We need them before this guy strikes again.'

'We will,' Eric said grimly.

'Wow,' Erika said. 'You look terrible.'

'Thanks,' Ryan said dryly. 'Nice to know what you think of me, Erika.'

She folded her arms and smiled at him. 'So, what do you want?' she asked. 'You never ring me unless you want something these days. Usually work related, unfortunately.'

He sighed. He really wasn't in a mood to play games with her today. 'The lab wants to put out a report about these murders.'

'Oh, are you allowed to talk to me about them?' she teased, a sharp tone in her voice.

'No,' he said shortly. 'You want details, you talk to my boss. I'm just the messenger.'

'Okay,' she said. 'I get the story, then. You up for dinner some time, Ryan?'

'Not really,' he said.

'Oh, come on,' she touched his shoulder lightly. 'You can show me the scars from your bullet injuries,' she added, smiling.

'I don't think so,' he said in the same short tone. 'I thought I made it clear I wasn't interested in you anymore.'

'Worth a try,' she said without much annoyance. 'But you really do look terrible. When was the last time you slept?'

'Last night.'

'In a proper bed for more than three hours?'

He shrugged. 'Don't remember.'

She shook her head. 'You need to take care of yourself – '

'I don't need your advise,' he snapped.

Erika raised her hands. 'Fine, be like that.' She shook her head at him. 'Honestly, Ryan. I'm just trying to be nice.'

He looked at his watch. 'I'm going home. I'm tired, I need a shower and then to sleep. See you around, Erika.'

'Yeah,' she muttered.

'Having fun?' Calleigh said to Eric, smiling. He wondered how she could be so cheerful. 'I heard Ryan's pretty hacked off. Breaking the equipment, too.'

'The guy needs anger management,' Eric said without rancour. 'At least until all this is over. You found anything?'

'Nothing,' she said. 'No one saw anything or heard anything at the last murder scene. Not a thing. Not even a cat knocking over a garbage can.'

'Great. So we have no evidence, no DNA, not even a single unreliable eye-witness. We haven't moved from where we started. Wolfe's right, that bastard's laughing at us.'

'Not for much longer,' she said confidently.

Eric shook his head. 'How can you stay so cheerful, Calleigh?'

'Sheer effort,' she replied. 'Come on, Eric, calm down. Clear mind, clear eyes see more.'

'Thanks for that pearl of wisdom,' he muttered.

'You're welcome.' Calleigh examined the photographs from the last crime scene. 'Another woman,' she said. 'Similar physical features, roughly the same age. Single, living alone. Not much to connect her to the other victims, but it's a start.'

'It's always a start, then it always ends up a stop,' Eric said. 'Why are you doing this, Calleigh? We've been over this time and time again. All of the murders.'

'Maybe we missed something.'

'The three of us and Horatio have been over all six murders multiple times. What makes you think we all missed something?'

'Nothing,' Calleigh said, ignoring his angry tone. 'But it's always a possibility.'

Eric smiled despite himself at her unfailing optimism and felt himself infected by it.

That feeling of optimism didn't last long, however.


	2. He'll Make A Mistake

He'll Make A Mistake

Eric looked down at the body and felt sick. You never really got used to the violence, the blood, the sheer horror. You just got used to blocking it out, to doing your job because it needed to be done. He was worried if people got used to it, hoped he never would. There was a difference between being indifferent to murder, and between not letting it affect your work.

This one was nasty. She lay sprawled on the bed, throat slashed like all the others, arterial blood sprayed across the bed sheets, the wall and the floor. It had spread into a pool on the floor. There were a few broken pieces of glass, a shattered picture frame and some debris on the floor.

'Signs of a struggle,' he said out loud and photographed it, taking photos of all the debris and the fragments of glass.

'Unusual,' Ryan said from behind him. The other CSI set his kit on the floor and looked around. 'He usually cleans up better than this.'

'Maybe he was interrupted,' Eric said. 'What are you doing here?'

'Heard it on the scanner,' Ryan said absently. 'Thought you might be needing some help in the field or in the lab.' He took another look around and grimaced despite himself. The smell of blood was heavy in the air and it made him feel slightly sick.

Eric smiled despite himself. 'You really have no life to go to, do you?'

Ryan returned the smile. 'Right, because you would have done differently.'

'I didn't say that.' Eric photographed the bed. 'Let's hope he was interrupted. Maybe he forgot something.' He saw Ryan's expression and said, 'He'll make a mistake eventually.'

'Eventually is too long,' Ryan said grimly. He looked up as Horatio came in.

'I couldn't agree more,' Horatio said. 'But why are you here, Wolfe?'

'He has a scanner,' Eric said, grinning. 'Unfortunately, the man has no life.' He quickly went back to taking photographs as Ryan gave him a glare.

'Still, we could probably use everyone we can get,' Horatio said.

'Where's Calleigh?' Ryan asked, pulling on sterile gloves and taking out a few swabs.

'She got another call-out,' Horatio said. 'You can cope here, can't you.' It wasn't a question. Eric and Ryan nodded. 'Good. I have to go and explain to our wonderful superiors why it is we haven't caught this murderer.'

'Good luck with that,' Ryan said with sympathy.

'Ditto,' Eric said. 'Get this blood pool, Ryan.' He moved out of the way. Ryan crouched down and took a few swabs of the blood. 'You okay?' he asked.

Ryan didn't look up. 'In what respect do you mean? If you mean, am I going to throw up, the answer is yes I am fine. If you mean, am I seriously frustrated by this case, then the answer is no I am not fine. Very not fine.'

'Ryan,' Eric said, pausing in his photo-taking. 'We will catch him. I know this is your first serial killer case and trust me, I felt exactly the same my first case. I still do. But getting angry isn't going to help catch him. Just try and keep cool okay?'

Ryan put the swabs away carefully. 'I'm sorry.'

Eric took the photo. 'Don't be, you got nothing to be sorry for. I'd think less of you if this didn't make you mad.' He gave Ryan a reassuring grin. 'Right, that's this room all photographed. You want to finish processing in here whilst I start on the other rooms?'

Ryan nodded. 'Sure.'

'I'll go photograph the kid's room,' Eric said.

'Kid? She had a kid?'

'Yeah,' Eric said quietly. 'Not here. A neighbour says she always spends the last weekend of the month with her grandparents. But all rooms must be processed.'

'Right.' Ryan didn't look up.

'So, I'll go photograph.'

When you've done that, you can dive the dumpster.' He saw Eric's expression and smiled. 'I did the last one. Your turn.'

'Fine, fine,' Eric said. 'But you can process the bathroom since I did that last time.'

'Fair enough.'

They continued working. Eric worked through taking the photographs whilst Ryan followed with swabs and so on. It took them hours.

Eric walked into the bathroom and said, 'I'm going to dive the dumpster. You almost done?'

'Gotta process the bathroom,' Ryan said, packing away more evidence bags. 'You go, I'll finish up in here.'

'Okay.' Eric waved a hand and left.

Ryan looked around the bathroom. It wasn't as clean as most of the bathrooms the serial killer had left behind him. There were blood drops of the floor and a few smears in the sink. He swabbed them and finished processing. He looked around and frowned as he noticed the bathroom rug moved out of place. He walked over to the bathroom cupboard and opened it.

There was a girl crouched inside. She looked up, terrified, her face stained with tears. Seeing him, she pulled herself further back into the cupboard, whimpering softly.

Ryan looked at her with mounting horror and sudden, terrible misery. A child. The woman's child. He felt sick.

Okay, this won't be updated for a couple of weeks since I'm going away and won't have internet for a while. But I thought since I'd done these chapters, I might as well post them up. Hopefully, over the next couple of weeks I'll be able to finish it. 


	3. Another Victim

A quick note before anyone reads this. This is set AFTER Crossed Wires and Poison, but BEFORE Finally. I decided to put up more of Finally, but only after I had originally posted it. So although I have finished it, I won't be posting the rest of it up until I've finished this. These four Miami fics are connected, although not quite as closely as the first two because I like connecting things. Confused yet?

Another Victim

Horatio looked at Ryan over the top of his sunglasses. 'I want you to go with her,' he said. 'She might know something, she might have evidence on her.'

Eric, who was watching, expected Ryan to protest, ask why he had to go to the hospital. Instead, Ryan simply nodded. Horatio turned to Eric. 'Process that cupboard. Then get everything back to the lab.'

'All right,' Eric said, nodding.

'I'll have Calleigh sent to the hospital to process her clothes,' Horatio added to Ryan.

'Right.' Ryan walked over to the ambulance and spoke to the paramedics. They didn't look too happy that a CSI would be coming with them, but they couldn't really protest.'

'Eric,' said Horatio, 'I want you to finish processing that bathroom. Then get back to the lab and send everything you and Wolfe have found for analysis as soon as you get there. This case is our top priority at the moment.'

'Understand,' Eric said. 'By the way, H, I checked the dumpsters on this block. Still haven't found anything.'

'At this point, did you expect to?' Horatio asked.

'Not really.'

Horatio nodded and replaced his shades. 'I'll go and make sure Calleigh knows what's happening. Tripp is still interviewing neighbours. No one seems to have heard anything.'

'At this point, were you expecting any of them to?' Eric asked with a hint of humour.

A brief smile flashed across Horatio's face. 'We can always get lucky.'

'How is she?' Ryan asked the doctor.

'Alice is fine,' the doctor said, smiling. 'A little dehydrated and in shock, but otherwise she hasn't been hurt at all. Luckily for her.'

'So physically, she's fine,' Ryan said shortly. 'I want to know how she is otherwise.'

The doctor gave him a serious look. 'In severe shock. I suppose you want to speak to her?'

Ryan glanced over the doctor's shoulder through the window to where Alice was sat quietly at a table. She was drawing. 'We need to find out what happened,' he said.

'I thought you already knew that,' the doctor said, rather more sharply than he intended.

Ryan looked back at him. 'Maybe she knows something we don't,' he said. 'And one of my team has to process her, see if she has any of the killer's DNA on her or if she saw him.'

'One of your team? I trust you're aware of protocol.'

'Of course I am,' Ryan said, rather impatiently. 'Which is why I'm here talking to you and not to her yet.'

'Just making sure,' the doctor said. 'You want to go in and talk to her?'

'If you don't mind. But I need to call my team first.'

'All right. There's a payphone just down the corridor.'

Ryan used the payphone and got Calleigh.

'Is there something wrong?' she asked.

'Yes, and that's why you need to come down here,' he said. 'I need to process Alice.'

'Alice?'

'Didn't Horatio tell you?'

'He hasn't got back yet. Where are you?'

'I'm at the hospital.'

'Again? What did you do this time?'

'Very funny,' he said sourly. 'We found a little girl hiding in the house, Calleigh. Horatio had me go with her to the hospital. She's been treated and now they say we can talk to her and process her, if we need to.'

'Which is why you want me to come down.'

'Yeah. Protocol and everything. Are you free?'

'I'm always free for something this important. You go ahead and talk to her, I'll be there in a bit.'

'Thanks, Calleigh.'

He went back to the room and knocked on the door. Alice didn't reply but he went in anyway. It was a nice enough room, for a hospital, with a pleasant view out of the window, a couple of boxes of toys, crayons and drawing paper. It was a playroom, one of the nurses had told him, and Alice would be here for the day whilst she wasn't being interviewed or analysed by a psychiatrist.

He sat down on the floor and said, 'Hi, Alice. Do you remember me?'

She didn't look up.

'My name is Ryan,' he continued, 'and I was at you and your Mum's house this morning.'

Alice carried on scrawling large, dark crayon marks across the paper. 'Mummy got hurt,' she said eventually.

'I know, and I'm sorry,' he said.

'The bad man hurt her,' she said. 'I hid. Mummy was scared but she told me to hide. She said someone was coming to steal our things.'

'I know, Alice.' She looked at him, dark eyes serious and he said, 'I'm really sorry.'

'Are you a cop?' she asked.

'Yes, I am.'

'Can I see your badge?'

He took it off his belt and showed it to her. She didn't smile, simply examined it intensely and then asked, 'Why aren't you wearing a uniform?'

'I'm a special kind of cop,' he explained. 'I'm what we call a CSI. That's a crime scene investigator. We solve crimes.'

'Are you going to find out who killed my Mummy?'

'Yes, we are,' he said firmly.

'Good,' she said with finality and went back to her drawing. She refused to speak for some time, concentrating solely upon her drawing. It was a house, with a couple of figures stood outside. Ryan was disturbed to see that the dominant colours were black and red and that there were no smiles on the faces of the figures, but black holes that made them look as if they were screaming. The smaller figure was crying.

'Where are you going?' Eric asked Calleigh as she hurried past him out of the building.

'I'm off to the hospital,' she said, stopping. 'Ryan asked me to go and process the little girl you guys found at the house.'

'Horatio's told him to stay there,' Eric said. 'I'm amazed he's not more annoyed about being cut out of working on the case.'

'He is working on the case,' Calleigh said, 'and he knows what's important. See you later, Eric.'

'Bye.'

Calleigh drove to the hospital and went inside. A receptionist directed her to a nurse who could take her to the little girl's room. As she approached, she looked in through the window and saw Ryan sitting cross-legged on the floor, playing some kind of game involving wooden blocks with the girl. He was smiling, saying something and the girl, although not smiling, looked very involved in the game.

She knocked and Ryan looked up. Alice didn't respond, just carried on piling up the blocks into a precarious tower.

'Hi,' Calleigh said cheerfully. 'You must be Alice.' She crouched down, setting her kit on the floor. 'You mind if I talk to you?'

Alice lashed out and sent the tower of bricks crashing everywhere. One of them hit Ryan's wrist with a smack and he winced. 'Alice, what's wrong?' he asked.

She turned a look terrified and angry look upon Calleigh.

'Hey, Alice,' Ryan said. 'What's wrong?'

Calleigh showed no concern over the outburst, although inwardly she was worried and sat down on the floor. 'What game were you playing?' she asked. 'Can I join in?'

Alice shook her head.

'This is Calleigh,' Ryan said to her gently. 'She's my friend. You remember I said my job is solving crimes? Well, so is Calleigh's. She's really good at it, Alice. That's why she's here, to help us find out who hurt your Mum. Is that okay?'

Alice looked at Calleigh and slowly relaxed. One of her hands clasped at Ryan's. He smiled and said, 'Calleigh's really nice, Alice.'

Calleigh gave her an encouraging smile and said, 'Please can I join in your game? It looks like fun.'

Slowly, Alice nodded and picked up one of the building blocks. Calleigh smiled at her, and then at Ryan who looked relieved.

They played the building game for a while until Alice relaxed and some of her distrust of yet another stranger faded. Then Calleigh started the processing. Ryan sat a little way back, watching how Calleigh dealt with the situation with interest. First, Calleigh explained to Alice what she wanted, to see if any of the killer's DNA had got onto Alice's clothes. She explained what DNA was, and how it could help them to catch the killer. She let Alice look through her crime scene field kit before anything else, explaining to her the use of everything in there. Alice didn't want Ryan to leave so he stayed whilst Calleigh took samples from under Alice's fingernails and hair, to see if there was any DNA or anything. She had already collected Alice's clothes from the nurses who had packed them carefully for the CSIs to take away. Then they questioned her, asking her what she had seen, exactly what had happened, but since she had been hiding for most of the time, they didn't manage to get anything substantial.

'I have to take this back to the lab,' Calleigh said later. 'You're staying here, right?'

'Yes,' Ryan said. 'Call me if you find anything. I mean, leave a message on my phone, right?'

She nodded. 'I will.' She left.

Ryan went back to Alice who was playing with the bricks again.

'She's nice,' she said.

'I know,' he said, sitting down.

'Are you really going to find the man who killed my Mummy?'

'Yes, we are,' he said with utter conviction. 'I promise you, we will find him.'

She nodded seriously.

It was a little later. Ryan had stayed with Alice, even when the nurses had tried to shoo him out. Alice had protested very vocally. It seemed that, since he was the one who had found her and had come to hospital, and so far had stayed, she trusted him and regarded him as a constant presence amongst the amount of strangers she had seen so far.

However, when the psychiatrist came around to give an psychological evaluation, Alice refused to budge. She didn't want to leave the room.

'Fine,' the woman said, her patience clearly strained. Ryan had taken an instant dislike to her. 'We'll do it here. Okay, Alice?'

'I'm staying,' Ryan said.

The woman gave him a hard look. 'I don't think we need to here, Mr – '

'Wolfe,' he said shortly. 'And I'm not going.'

Alice looked at him. Not even a flicker of a smile crossed her face, but she looked a little relieved.

'You really aren't needed here, Mr Wolfe,' the woman said tightly. She looked harassed and rather upset; she looked like she'd had a really bad day. Ryan was prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt, but her attitude so far had annoyed him and he made a metal note to speak to someone about her attitude. Especially when the person involved was a vulnerable little girl who had already been through hell in the past twenty-four hours.

'If Alice would like me to stay, then I will,' he said.

They both looked at Alice who was nodding slowly. Ryan gave the woman a bright smile. 'See?' he said. 'I think that's settled, then.'


	4. A Child's Drawing

A Child's Drawing

'What can you tell me, Alexx?' Horatio asked. They were in the mortuary and the body of the latest victim was laid out on the table.

'No different to other victims, Horatio,' she said. Pulling back the sheet to reveal the head and neck, she pointed to the mortal wound. 'Throat cut, one straight, deep cut with a serrated blade. Point of origin and directionality indicate that it was a left handed cut.'

'Two of the others were right handed,' he said thoughtfully. 'You said that two out of the six were done with a right hand.'

'That's right, Horatio. And both as neatly cut as the others. Your killer is probably ambidextrous.'

'Interesting,' he said. 'Ambidexterity isn't all that common.'

'A lot of people are adept at using both hands for simple tasks,' Alexx said. 'But this kind of ambidexterity isn't very common, no.'

'Could be an identifying feature of our killer, then. Can you tell me anything else?'

'No, Horatio. There were some black fibres under her nails. I sent them to trace, they could be from the killer's clothing.'

'But we know he'll have ditched the clothing,' Horatio said. 'We'll have to be very lucky to find it. Any sign of other injuries?'

'Yes,' she said, moving the sheet to reveal the dead woman's head. 'A bruise on the side of her head. Not serious, but probably enough to stun her.'

'He probably hit her to stop her struggling,' Horatio murmured. 'Long enough for him to cut her throat, anyway.'

'What are you thinking, Horatio?' she asked, watching him.

'I'm thinking this is unusual,' Horatio said thoughtfully. 'I'll got and see if Calleigh and Ryan have managed to find out anything from the daughter.'

'Had any luck finding a murder weapons?' she asked.

He stopped by the door. 'No. Either he's disposed of it somewhere we haven't yet found it, or he uses the same weapon every time. We may have to find him before we find the weapon.'

* * *

'Did you manage to get anything off of Alice's clothes?' Horatio asked Calleigh later, in the lab. 

Calleigh shook her head. 'Nothing, or at least nothing that we can use.'

'Probably because she hid herself as soon as her mother knew there was something wrong and stayed there until Wolfe found her,' Horatio reasoned.

'We processed her room,' Eric said. 'But it was all tidy and nothing out of place. I don't think the killer went in there – presumably he didn't know she was in the house so he had no reason to go in there. Remember, the neighbour said that the girl went to stay with her grandmother that weekend of the month. She should have been there, but I spoke to her grandmother. Alice didn't go there this weekend because her grandmother was unwell.'

'And obviously our killer didn't know that,' Horatio mused. 'Is Wolfe still at the hospital?'

'Yes,' Calleigh said. 'He called and said the girl had been taken for yet another psychological evaluation and to see a counsellor. She seems to trust him so he's stayed there.'

'We may need him back here soon,' Horatio said.

'That may be difficult,' Calleigh said with a small smile. 'Alice likes him, she trusts him. Unless her grandmother gets there, she might not want him to leave.'

'The grandmother is going as soon as she can,' Horatio said.

'Are we any closer to finding out who the killer is?' Eric asked suddenly. 'Is this investigation still going nowhere?' He sounded angry. 'Have we got anything more than what we had before?'

'We have a live witness,' Horatio reminded him gently.

'A kid,' Eric pointed out. 'A traumatised kid. And do we have anything solid? And evidence?'

'We're still awaiting DNA results,' Calleigh said, more calmly than she felt.

'Did you manage to retrieve anything from the garbage?' Horatio asked Eric.

'I wouldn't be in here if I had and you would already know about it.'

'A simple no would have been adequate, Eric,' Horatio said dryly.

'Your results are back,' Valera said from the door. 'I'm sorry, Horatio, but all the blood is your victim's. I ran all the samples you gave me, I triple checked everything. All of the blood is the victim's and the other samples are all from her or her daughter.'

'All right,' Horatio said quietly. 'So at the moment DNA is a dead end.'

'I'm sorry,' she said.

'It's not your fault,' he said absently.

'So we're back at a dead end,' Eric said.

'Not quite. Calleigh, how did the news report we got the reporter friend of Ryan's to broadcast?'

'Hoax calls and genuine calls that can't actually tell us anything,' Calleigh said.

Horatio nodded again, still very calm. 'Okay. Perhaps someone will eventually ring up with something useable.'

'I wouldn't bet on it,' Eric muttered in a wry tone.

Horatio heard but chose not to comment. His phone rang. He answered it. 'Horatio.'

'Horatio, it's Ryan.'

'Is everything okay?'

'As well as can be expected,' Ryan said in a wry tone that was so similar to Eric's tone that Horatio almost smiled. 'I think I might have something interesting here, Horatio.'

'Something related to the case?'

'Yes.'

Horatio thought for a moment. 'All right. Are you still at the hospital?'

'Yes, I am.'

'I'll come down – no, I won't. I'll send Calleigh and Eric down. Half an hour, maximum. All right?'

'Yeah. Horatio, get her to bring a portable scanner and laptop.'

Horatio sounded startled. 'Really?'

'Yes.'

'Well, all right. Bye, Wolfe.' Horatio turned to Calleigh and Eric. 'He wants you to go to the hospital, and take a laptop an scanner in the car with you. He says he has something that might be of interest to us.'

Calleigh looked at Eric who shrugged. She said, 'I wonder what that could be.'

'Go find out, please,' he said amiably.

* * *

'Hey, Ryan,' Calleigh said, meeting him in the corridor outside the room where Alice was. 

'Hey,' Eric said.

'Hey,' Ryan replied.

'Where's Alice?' she asked.

'She's having something to eat,' he said. 'Her grandmother is coming to take her home later today, so I'll be back once she's gone home.'

'She's been to see all the psychologists and so on?' Eric asked.

'Yeah, she has and finally it's all over.' He shook his head. 'Not that they've found out anything we didn't know,' he added in a dry voice.

'What was she saying?' Eric asked.

'Did they get anything about the killer from her?' Calleigh asked at the same time.

'Well, they didn't have much luck finding out anything about the killer,' Ryan said. 'We got more information about what happened out of her.'

'Which wasn't much,' Calleigh admitted.

Ryan waved that aside impatiently. 'But she has been drawing – '

'Aside from playing building games?' Eric asked, smiling.

The joke was lost on Ryan. He just scowled and said, 'She's been drawing. She did a couple of her home and her mum – and she did this one.' He waved a couple of pieces of paper at them, drawings. 'You should take a copy back to the lab, which is why I said to bring the computer equipment.'

Calleigh and Eric exchanged glances.

'Ryan, it's just a picture,' Calleigh said.

He shook his head with impatience at their slowness today. 'Look. This is a house, right? I guess you could see it's like her house, right?'

'Ryan, all kids draw houses,' Eric said.

'Just shut up both of you, for a minute.' He brought out another sheet of paper. 'Look. This another one she did. It's of her and her mum outside their house. Note the use of black and red, and the fact that the figures are both crying.'

'Okay,' Calleigh said. 'What's different about the other one?'

'There's this third figure,' Ryan said. He was clearly growing irritated with their lack of understanding. 'It's a man, see? With blond hair.'

'The father?' Eric suggested.

'No. The grandmother says she never knew her father, he died when she was a baby. And he was dark haired. And look, this figure is covered in blood.'

'You think he might be the killer?' Calleigh said, suddenly excited.

He nodded, looking pleased they finally understood. 'Yes! I think maybe she caught a glimpse of him and now she's drawn this!'

'It's not much to go on,' Eric pointed out. 'It'll never hold up as evidence in court.'

'It doesn't have to, once we find him,' Ryan pointed out. 'This gives us a very sketchy idea of what he looks like, if nothing else.'

'But it's something,' Calleigh said. 'Ryan, Horatio will want to see this. This is the closest thing we've got to a description of the killer.'

* * *


	5. Moving On

**Moving On**

The rooms stank. The air was filled with the stench of copper. One police officer had already left, retching. The body of a woman was sprawled across the bed, eyes closed and her arms flung out as if she were asleep. She was not. There was a wide gash in her throat and arterial spray across the wall. There was blood everywhere on the bed, sprayed across the sheets and soaking into the mattress, staining her night clothes red.

Grissom examined the scene silently. Anyone who didn't know him might have thought that the CSI's clinical and detached manner was emotionless, even callous, but that was far from the truth.

He crouched down and very carefully pulled back part of the blanket that had trailed off of the bed and hung down on the floor. The hem was marked with blood, but there was none on the floor.

'Thorough clean-up,' he observed. 'No blood visible on the floor, he cleaned up well.' He examined the floor. 'No dirt, no dust. He cleaned the entire floor.' He sniffed the air thoughtfully. 'With bleach,' he added. Straightening, he turned around, meeting Sara's eyes. She looked angry but composed.

'I'll get the ALS in here,' she said.

'This is pine flooring,' Grissom said. 'We should be able to get some blood trace off of it with ultraviolet light.'

'Okay.' Sara left, passing Greg on her way out. The other CSI looked into the room and Grissom saw him visibly wince.

'This is bad,' he said.

'I'd agree with that,' Grissom said. He looked around again. 'Start dusting for prints, Greg.'

Greg undid his field kit and brought out finger-print powder and a brush. Keeping quiet, so as not to disturb Grissom, he began to dust for prints.

There were footsteps on the stairs and Catherine appeared on the landing outside.

Grissom frowned when he saw her. 'I thought you were taking the night off.'

'I was,' she said. 'But Lindsey went to a friend's house for the night, a birthday party, and I heard about this on my police scanner. Figured you could do with all the help you could get.'

'Thank you,' Grissom said.

'What's everyone doing?' she asked. 'What can I do?'

'Sara's bringing up the ALS,' he said. 'Nick and Warrick are outside checking the parameter and Greg, as you can see, is lifting prints.'

'No, looking for prints to lift,' Greg corrected. 'Grissom, I can't find a single useable print. Hell, I'm just having trouble finding a print.'

'Keep looking.'

'What can I do?' Catherine repeated.

'You can go and help Brass interview the neighbours,' he said.

'Is that all?' she asked.

'It's a pretty big all,' he pointed out. 'You're a people person, Catherine, and you wanted to know what you could do.'

She lifted her hands and smiled. 'Okay, I'll go. You need me here, let me know.'

'We may need you if the ALS picks up any unusual blood patterns,' he called after her by way of a peace offering.

'That is my field of expertise,' she replied, almost bumping into Sara on the way up.

'Isn't this Catherine's night off?' Sara asked.

'She came in. We need all the help we can get,' Grissom said, not looking around.

'But still.'

'But still wouldn't you come in if this was your night off?'

She considered. 'Point taken.'

'All right, Sara, direct the light over there. Greg, pulled the curtains, will you?'

Greg did so and Grissom closed the door. Sara shone the ALS beam onto the floor around the bed. There was the residue of a large blood pool on the floor, which had clearly been cleaned away very thoroughly, and with bleach.

'Have a look in the bathroom,' Grissom said. 'He might have cleaned himself up in there.'

She took the ALS with her.

'Grissom,' Greg said, 'there is not one single useable print in this room.' He held his hands apart in defeat. 'He's cleaned every surface, even one's he'd probably have no need to have touched. The whole place has been wiped clean.'

Grissom nodded, a slight frown betraying how frustrating that was. 'Okay. Sara, found anything?'

'There's blood trace in the sink and bath,' she called. 'All scrubbed down with bleach – I can smell it and there's an empty bottle here.'

'Bag that,' Grissom said to Greg. 'Print in there, too.'

'Okay.' Greg went in with the powder and brush. 'No,' he said a few minutes later, 'I can't get any prints in here, Grissom.'

'We go over this entire house with a fine tooth comb,' Grissom said. 'We leave no corner unprocessed, understood? If there's any evidence to be found here, we'll find it.'

* * *

'Okay,' Grissom said later, when the whole team was back at the lab and meeting to discuss the case. There were mugs of coffee and sandwiches and the team looked set to be there the rest of the shift, the rest of the day or even the week until they had this case solved. 'What have we got?' 

'Or not got,' Warrick observed.

'Thank you, Warrick, you can go first,' Grissom said.

Warrick smiled slightly. 'Okay. Nick and I went around the entire house on the outside. Last night was dry, so the ground was also dry and we couldn't lift any footprints or get any tire treads.'

'The killer may not even have come by a vehicle,' Nick put in. 'He could have walked.'

'We found that one of the panes of glass in the front door was broken,' Warrick continued. 'Not recently, because we didn't find any broken glass. But one of the neighbours told us that it got broken a few days ago, the victim didn't know how and she had the window tapped up until it was repaired. The glazier was coming in two days to fix it.'

'So that's probably how the killer got in,' Nick added. 'It's likely that he broke the window originally and then used it to get his arm through the door and opened it from the outside.'

'Door wasn't very secure,' Warrick added. 'Easy to unlock once he got his arm through the broken window – we tried it. No prints, though. He wiped them all down or he wore gloves. Or both.'

'Maybe he cased this house, and saw her lack of good security,' Catherine suggested.

'Maybe,' Grissom said. 'Anything else, guys?'

Nick and Warrick shook their heads. 'No litter, no cigarette butts, nothing in the trash,' Nick said. 'We went through everything, nothing except some thrown out food and paper, which was the victim's.'

'Okay. Sara, Greg?'

'I got not one single print out of the bedroom or bathroom,' Greg said. 'Nothing off of any door handles, same as Nick and Warrick. The only prints in any of the other rooms were the victims and one other unidentified set. The other set turned out to be her sister's, as she was staying there last week but she's been in New York for the past five days so we could eliminate her. The killer wiped down every single surface that they might have touched, in the bedroom and the bathroom. And nothing off the empty bleach bottle we found.'

'He cleaned up really well,' Sara said. 'The entire floor, cleaned with bleach and vacuumed, same in the bathroom. He was very, very careful.' She gave a brief smile. 'He wasn't quite careful enough. I got a single hair when I took a look in the pipes in the bathroom. He used the bath to wash down and although he used bleach, I managed to get a single hair that does not match our victim's colouring. Mia's analysing it now.'

'I went around the neighbours with Brass,' Catherine said. 'No one saw anything, no one heard anything. One person mentioned that the window got broken but again, no one saw anything. No one heard any vehicles, heard any disturbance. As far as witnesses go, no matter how vague, we've got nothing.' She looked at Grissom. 'What about the autopsy?'

'Died of blood loss,' Grissom said. 'From the cut throat. The doc says that she had a large bruise on the side of her head, indicating that she was knocked out, probably unconscious or at least unable to fight back when she was killed. Since she wasn't restrained by any ropes or anything, and the wound is a single, continuous one, this might be a logical assumption. Although,' he added, 'An assumption is all it is at the moment. Be aware of that. The doc says the directionality of the wound suggests the killer is right-handed, and the wound was caused by a serrated blade.'

Everyone winced.

'Exactly,' Grissom said. 'The killer immobilised the victim, she was probably unconscious or close to it, and he also used a weapon that's painful. He probably immobilised her to stop her from struggling – '

'But she wasn't gagged,' Sara cut in. 'So, he probably killed her before she regained consciousness or her senses enough to scream.'

'Why?' Greg asked.

'Could be several reasons,' Grissom said, frowning in thought. 'Killed her quickly, quietly to keep her from alerting anyone to what was happening.'

'Which he could have done if he had gagged her,' Catherine said.

'Or he wanted it to be over quickly and as painlessly as possible,' Grissom said.

'Unusual,' Sara said.

'He killed quickly and cleanly,' Grissom said distantly. 'Torture tends to be personal, causing a victim pain tends to be personal. This isn't personal. It's detached, quick and he knocked her out beforehand. Maybe to prevent her from feeling the pain and screaming, begging him not to. Because that would make her human. Easier to kill her before she has a chance to beg for her life, or to scream.'

'Man, you are cheerful,' Nick said.

Grissom looked up but didn't say anything. Before anyone else could say anything, the door opened and Brass came in.

'I just got some interesting news from Ecklie,' he said.

'You going to share or do we have to guess?' Catherine asked.

Brass smiled. 'He just got a call from the police department in Miami.'

'Miami?' Sara said.

'Why is the Vegas Crime Lab getting calls from Miami?' Nick asked.

'Apparently, this murder isn't a lone incident,' Brass said. 'Eckley spoke to the head of the Miami Crime Lab, one Horatio Caine. He says that there have been six murders in the past three months in Miami that exactly match your current case.'

'Six?' Greg exclaimed.

'Six?' Sara echoed.

'Six,' Brass said grimly. 'Ecklie told him to let us deal with this now, it's passed into our jurisdiction but this Horatio Caine wouldn't hear of it. He's sending two of his best CSIs here to help us.'

'What?' Catherine said. 'What, they think we can't handle it?'

'We're more than capable of dealing with this,' Sara protested.

'They haven't caught him in three months?' Nick said.

'Guys, calm down,' Grissom said. 'They might be able to help us.'

'Sounds more like we might be able to help them,' Catherine said dryly.

'We don't have a choice now,' Grissom reminded them. 'But the more help we get, the better, now we know this is a serial killer.' He looked at Brass. 'When do they arrive?'

'Later today,' Brass replied. 'Better get to it, team. We can't afford to hang around with a killer like this on the loose.'

'You know what would be great?' Nick said as everyone got up and started to leave. 'If we caught the killer before the guys from Miami even arrive.'

'You think that's going to happen?' Sara said.

'No, but it would still be great.'

* * *

_Well, I've finally got the guys from Vegas in! Thanks for your reviews everyone! Next chapter will be up as soon as possible!_


	6. Across Our Jurisdiction

Thanks for reviews and comments. I know the episode where the guys from Vegas went to Miami; it was the pilot epsiode for Miami. But I am working from the angle that the Vegas team might not be entirely happy about outsiders coming in to help out; remember how Catherine reacted when Sara first worked in Vegas?Anyway, here's the next chapter. The next one might be a while because I have these pesky things called deadlines. Not happy.

**Across Our Jurisdiction**

'What have we got?' Horatio asked.

Calleigh picked up the sheet of paper and showed it to him. 'The only description we have of our killer.'

'That's all? A child's drawing?'

She nodded. 'It's not much, but it's something. It does mean she's seen the killer and she might be able to identify him when we find him.'

'I don't want to have to put her through that if we don't have to,' he said. 'So find something that will nail him without having to put her on the stand.'

'I take your point, but if she needs to testify – '

'She may not be in any emotional state to testify,' he reminded her. 'We're going to need something more than that, anyway, if we're to make the charge stick.'

'Fair enough,' Calleigh agreed.

Eric came in. 'You seen this?' he asked Horatio.

'Yes, and it's not much to go on,' Horatio said, frowning. 'We have to keep digging, team, if we're going to get anywhere with this.'

'We've been digging, H,' Eric said. 'And we're getting nothing.'

'This isn't much, but it's more than nothing,' Horatio said, pointing at the picture.

'Yeah, I know,' Eric said, 'but it's not getting us any closer to the killer, is it?'

Before Eric could reply, the conversation was interrupted.

'Horatio,' one of the other lab staff said, peering into the room. 'There's a call for you. It sounded urgent.'

'Okay,' Horatio said. 'You two, I'll be back in a minute.'

'Where's Ryan?' Eric asked suddenly.

'At the hospital.'

'Again?'

'Alice trusts him,' Calleigh said, not looking up. 'Maybe because he found her. He even had to explain to her that I was a friend before she would let me in the same room as her.'

'Don't you think Ryan is getting a little too involved in this case?' Eric asked.

'Happens to the best of us,' Calleigh said. 'Especially when cases involve children who trust you and look to you to help them. Horatio always gets personally involved in cases.'

'That's why he's so good at the job,' Eric agreed.

'But I take your point. Getting too close to the victims can hurt us and we end up seeing too much pain and suffering for us to be able to deal with. But I think Ryan will be okay.'

Eric looked over her shoulder. 'Talk of the devil,' he said as he saw Ryan through the glass windows. He waved a hand; Ryan saw and headed over.

'She all right?' Eric asked.

'Her grandmother came and took her back to her home,' Ryan said. He tucked his hands into his pockets, frowning. 'Any luck?'

'At best, the drawings tell us that she saw him and knows what he looks like,' Calleigh said. 'Sorry.'

'Okay. What do we do now?' Ryan asked.

'Wait for Horatio to come back,' Eric said. 'That call might be a lead of some sort.'

'The luck we've been having on this case, I wouldn't count on it,' Calleigh said, a little sourly.

'I have some news,' Horatio said, returning to the room. The other three all looked around.

'Something about the case?' Calleigh asked.

He nodded. 'There's been a murder almost exactly the same as this one in Las Vegas. It was on the news not long ago so I just rang up the Vegas crime lab.'

'That's quick,' Eric said. When they all looked at him, he said, 'He usually waits a couple of weeks before striking again.'

'He's probably getting overconfident,' Ryan said. 'But Vegas?'

'He's moving on,' Calleigh said.

'So are you,' Horatio said.

The three turned and stared at him.

He smiled faintly. 'I told the head of the crime lab, a Conrad Ecklie, that I was going to send two of my CSIs to help out.' He pointed at Calleigh and then Ryan. 'You two. You'll be taken to Vegas within a few hours. I suggest you take the next hour off to get some personal things together. I'll get a place to stay sorted out for you, and Eric, I want you to go through the files on this case and make copies for them to take with them.'

Eric nodded, trying not to look disappointed that he hadn't been chosen to go.

'We're to come back here, then,' Ryan said.

'Yes. Then you'll both be on your way. The Vegas CSIs I worked with a couple of years ago are good people, good CSIs. You have no need to worry about that.'

'I shouldn't think they'll be pleased about us descending upon them,' Ryan commented.

'Then anyone who is unhappy will just have to deal with that,' Horatio said with little patience. 'Catching a murderer is more important. Get to it.'

As Calleigh and Ryan left, Horatio turned to Eric and said, 'You may be wondering why I'm not sending you.'

Eric shrugged. 'I don't doubt Wolfe's capabilities, dont' think that,but Calleigh and I both worked with the Vegas CSIs on that serial killer case – '

'Yes, you did,' Horatio agreed. 'However, that is why I sent Calleigh, and you can't leave Miami at the moment with your sister very ill.'

'I know,' Eric said. 'I just – '

'I trust all of you to do a good job,' Horatio said firmly. 'But I can't send all three of you, I need someone I can trust here and that's one of the three of you. One of you had to stay behind and at the moment, you're the one who needs to be here.' He smiled again, kindly. 'Next time, you'll all just have to draw straws.'


	7. Let's All Try To Get Along

**Chapter Seven: Let's All Try To Get Along**

'Why the hell do we need outside CSIs on our case?' Catherine demanded of Grissom as they walked to the reception to meet the newcomers. 'Is this a hint that the powers that be think we're not up to dealing with this case?'

'It's a big case,' Grissom said mildly. 'And we need all the help we can get.'

'I still think we can handle this ourselves!' she said.

'I agree,' Sara put in. Warrick nodded.

Grissom sighed, clearly exasperated by his team's anger. 'Will you guys think about how you all sound? This isn't a turf thing – we're all CSIs and we're all trying to catch a serial killer. Think about that, will you?' He gave them all an admonishing looking and looked back towards the reception.

* * *

'They don't look happy to see us,' Ryan said in an undertone.

'No, they don't,' Calleigh agreed.

'Hello,' Grissom said, smiling slightly in greeting. 'You would be the CSIs from Miami, yes?'

'We are,' Calleigh said. 'You would be Gil Grissom?'

'I am.' He motioned to the woman behind him. 'This is – '

'Willows, right?' Calleigh said, polite and with her usual sunny smile. 'You came to Miami on that serial case?'

'Oh, yeah,' Catherine said, adding grudgingly, 'You were a lot of help. Calleigh, right? Who's your friend?'

'Ryan Wolfe,' he said shortly, just short of being rude. Calleigh cast him a warning look.

There was a small group of people outside, probably the rest of the team.

Grissom continued, 'That's Nick Stokes, Warrick Brown and Sara Sidle. You've already met Jim Brass, I take it? Good. That's everyone except Greg.' He looked apologetic. 'Greg Saunders is a member of our team, but unfortunately he's off this case right now. He used to be technician in our DNA lab but since our current technician is off ill right now, he's been pushed back in the lab. You'll meet him later.'

'Pleased to meet you all,' Calleigh said, Ryan echoing the sentiment.

'I think it might be time for us to talk about this case,' Grissom continued. 'We've already received information from our own evidence, but we'd like to hear about this case from its beginning. We'll got into the briefing room. Did you bring case files?'

* * *

'The murders started in Miami approximately three months ago,' Calleigh said. 'One every two weeks.'

'Roughly,' Ryan said. 'We figured that he's clever – if circumstances don't fit exactly, he leaves off. Tries again the next night, a couple of nights later.'

Calleigh nodded. 'We've found no links between any of the victims. No similarities that stick out, he picks victims at random, it seems. They don't match in any way. He's murdered six women so far, and there's little similarity between any of them.' She opened one case file. 'This is the first victim. Lousie Mathers, twenty five years old, a nightclub singer. Second victim, Alexandra Kleine, thirty two, lawyer at a top law firm in Miami. Third victim, Charlotte Anderson, forty-five, a manager of a restaurant in Miami. Fourth victim, Mandy Chambers, twenty, a model. Fifth victim, Jane Holby, thirty two, school teacher. Latest victim, Maria Hillman, thirty, a waitress. No jobs, no mutual hobbies linking them. He seems to pick them at random.' She placed the photographs on the table.

'His method of murder remains the same,' Ryan said. 'Knocks them out, cuts their throat before they can struggle, or kills them whilst they're asleep. Kills as quickly as possible, it seems.'

'He knocks them out?' Warrick said. 'Before he kills them?'

'Yeah,' Ryan said with extreme irony. 'We have a _humane_ serial killer.'

'You think he knocks them out and kills them before they come round?' Sara asked, repeating the statement as if she couldn't quite believe it.

Ryan nodded. 'They aren't tied up, not restrained in any way. Not gagged, either. Since no one ever hears anything when the murders are committed, that suggests he makes sure they're out cold before he kills them.'

'Our M.E. found signs of bruising on the heads of each woman,' Calleigh explained further. 'Not severe, but enough to stun them, maybe knock them out.'

'This is getting weirder and weirder,' Sara muttered.

'What else?' Grissom asked.

'At the last scene, we found a potential witness,' Ryan said. 'A girl, daughter of the victim, Maria Hillman. There's no indication that the killer even knew she was there, she hid before he could find out.'

'That's rough on the kid,' Sara said with compassion.

'Yeah,' Ryan said flatly.

'We've got little useable evidence from any of the scenes,' Calleigh continued. 'He cleans up every time, so thoroughly that we can't get any useable prints or DNA. The cleaning fluids he uses degrades DNA and he hasn't raped any of them, not yet, so we can't get any evidence there. No neighbours have ever seen or heard anything suspicious and our only witness, the daughter, is suffering from trauma and although she has provided our only description, it's not entirely reliable. Or rather, it won't stand up in a court of law.' She looked at Ryan. You want to explain?'

'It's a drawing by the daughter,' he explained. 'We think that the male figure in the picture might be the man who killed her mother, since her father is dead and none of the other pictures she's drawn since the incident or others we've compared at the scene contain a man who looks like this. We think she drew him, although it's not a reliable description, and a very general one, at the moment it's all we've got to work on.' He pushed a copy of the drawing across the table.

'Please tell us you guys have something more,' Calleigh said.

'Right now, you have more than we do,' Grissom said with obvious regret.

'You don't have anything at all?' Ryan asked.

Catherine glared at him. 'You don't have much more than we do and we've only had the one case so far!'

Realising what his tone might have implied, Ryan said quickly, 'I didn't mean it like that. We were hoping you might have picked up something, maybe something he'd forgotten or overlooked that he hasn't in Miami.'

Catherine relaxed. 'No,' she said. 'Nothing.'

'Any theories on why he's come here?' Calleigh asked.

The Vegas team all shook their heads.

'So we're all still in the dark,' Grissom said ruefully.

'Fraid so,' Ryan said regretfully.

'Right,' Grissom said, leaning back. 'We're going to crack this case, everyone. We're all on overtime and pulling however many shifts we need to get this guy. And we're all going try and get along, all right?' He got up. 'Now I have to go and persuade various people in positions that they imagine makes them qualified to tell us how to do our jobs that we are doing our jobs. What I want you all to do is keeping going over evidence, comparing notes and so on, see if we can come up with anything new.'

He left.

The Vegas and Miami CSIs exchanged dubious glances.

* * *


	8. Working The Case

Okay, thanks for all the comments and reviews. Yes, I have now noticed that I misspelled Greg's surname and will be correcting that in future chapters. Someone noted in a review that Ryan seemed a little bit cold in the previous chapter; that wasn't exactly what I intended; what I intended was that he's upset about the kid being involved and he's quietly angry about it in the previous chapter. My fault, should have made that more clear but it was a good point and will be working on that in the future, so thanks!

**Chapter Eight: Working The Case  
**

'I don't believe this.'

Sara rolled her eyes. 'You've already said that.'

'I just don't.'

She paused in the act of pouring a cup of coffee. 'You going to explain why or just sit there repeating the same thing over and over?'

'I can't believe I'm stuck in the lab whilst everyone else has a crack at this case!'

'Ah.' Sara added sugar to her coffee and considered her next move.

Greg was not happy. Already irritated that he had being shunted back into the lab when he wanted to be in the field, he was now even more miffed because he was going to be stuck in the lab during the biggest case of the year. If - when – the case got solved, it was going to mean big positive publicity for the lab in Vegas and the one in Miami. This was the kind of case that helped careers on their way up the ladder, gave the department more funding, enabled them to catch more bad guys.

'I want to be out helping,' Greg said eventually. 'I don't want to sound selfish – '

'You got a point, Greg,' Sara said. 'We need everyone we can get in the field, but right now you're the only person who can sit in the DNA lab and that's vital too. There will be other cases.'

'That's the point,' Greg complained. 'You haven't got any DNA for me to test, all I'm doing is catching up on the work already here. I could still be in the field.'

'Best not to argue right now,' she advised.

He sighed. 'Yeah. Oh, well.'

She gave him a sympathetic slap on the shoulder and left.

* * *

'What are we all doing?' Catherine said.

'Since Grissom wandered off, I guess that puts you in charge,' Warrick said.

She shrugged. 'Okay. How do you two want to play this?' she asked Calleigh and Ryan.

'You got a strategy in mind?' Ryan asked.

'Have you?' she replied.

Calleigh and Ryan exchanged glances.

'I'd like to see the crime scene,' Ryan said.

'Fine. Warrick will show you the photos – '

'No, I'd like to see the crime scene itself,' he said.

Catherine smiled. 'Sure. Nick?'

'Let's go,' Nick said to Ryan. They got up and left.

'And I'd like to look over any evidence you've collected,' Calleigh said.

Catherine nodded. 'I can show you that.'

'Good.' Calleigh smiled and stood up. 'Lead the way, then.'

* * *

'Well, this is the crime scene,' Nick said, setting his field kit down on the floor. 'We already processed it but we're going over it a second time. Fresh eyes, Grissom says.'

'Okay,' Ryan said. 'That's a good idea.' He crouched down next to his field kit, opening it. He already had his gloves on.

'Wow,' Nick said, looking over his shoulder. 'That has got to be the most organised field kit I have ever seen. It's even more tidy than Warrick's and trust me, that's saying something.'

Ryan smiled. 'Saves time in the long run. Not having to search for stuff, having everything I need at hand. Besides,' he added, a little self-consciously, 'I'm a bit OCD.'

'Fair enough.' Nick looked around. 'Okay. I suppose we should make a start.'

Ryan looked around the room, which had obviously been very thoroughly processed already. 'Not matter how many times you process, there can always be something left over,' he said, almost to himself.

'Let's hope that's the case,' Nick said dryly.

* * *

Calleigh examined the knife carefully. 'No blood under the handle?' she said to Catherine. 'You know how often killers cut themselves on their own knife.'

'Yeah,' Catherine agreed. 'This guy is too smart. He either wore gloves or he was very careful, knows how to handle a knife without cutting himself.'

'Unfortunately for us,' Calleigh murmured. She turned the knife over again, trying to see something she hadn't seen before. 'And no prints?'

'Not a single one. Not even a partial,' Catherine said, sounding disgusted. 'This guy knows forensics. He knows how to cover his tracks.'

'Can't cover them all the time,' Calleigh said absently, her eyes not moving from the knife. Eventually, she was forced to concede that she wasn't going to find anything simply by staring at it. 'I'm assuming you already tested all the blood to make sure there's none of the murderer's on it.'

'Of course.'

'Just grabbing at straws, I guess,' Calleigh said, sighing. 'Let's process the clothes and bed sheets, then.'

'For about the fifteen times,' Catherine said wearily.

* * *

'Did you dismantle to drain?' Ryan said.

Nick stopped and looked at him. Ryan was looking for at the bath with a faint frown on his face.

'Well…no…' he said lamely. 'We processed the bath itself, there was nothing there and he washed it down with bleach. Anything would be degraded.'

'Maybe not, if it was stuck part of the way down the drain,' Ryan said. He gave Nick a wide grin. 'What do you say we do some plumbing?'

'I'm up for that,' Nick said. 'If it means we find something, I'll dismantle this entire house.'

'Great.'

The two CSIs exchanged grins.

* * *

'Any luck?' Sara asked, coming into the lab. Catherine and Calleigh looked up. Both were wearing almost identical expressions of frustration and anger.

'Nothing,' Catherine said. 'I've been over this evidence ten times and together we've been over it another ten times. There's nothing here. Nothing on the clothes, the knife, nothing.'

Sara smiled. Catherine saw the expression and said, 'Something's come up.'

'Nick and Ryan found something,' Sara said, unable to hide her excitement. 'Could contain murderer DNA. Greg's processing it now.'

* * *

Greg glowered at the group of CSIs peering at him through the window and made complex 'go away, I'm busy and you're distracting me' signs at them, which they all ignored. He scowled and went to Plan B, which was ignoring them back.

'How did you guys find it?' Warrick asked.

'We tore the bath apart and ripped up all the pipes,' Nick said cheerfully. 'And there it was – one tiny little hair that definitely did not belong to the victim.'

'Could be useless,' Ryan put in. 'Could belong to a boyfriend – '

'She doesn't have one,' Sara said.

'Ex, then,' he said. 'Friend, anyone.'

'But it's pretty likely it belongs to the murderer,' Calleigh said.

'I heard you guys found new evidence!' Grissom exclaimed as he hurried up. He looked harassed and fed-up, but definitely invigorated by news of fresh evidence.

'We don't know if it's anything yet,' Nick said.

'It's something,' Grissom said firmly. 'Has Greg got the results?'

'No, but they should come through any second now,' Catherine said.

There was a beep as the printer started.

Everyone held their breath.

Greg examined the piece of paper and they all saw his shoulders slump. He came to the door and said, 'I'm sorry guys, but your sample was too degraded for me to get a DNA sample from.'

There was a long silence.

'Greg, this is one of the few times I would ever appreciate you joking about this,' Grissom said.

Greg shook his head. 'I wish I was, Grissom. I really wish I was.' He handed the paper over. Grissom took it, read it, screwed it up and threw it on the floor before walking away.

Catherine picked it up, unrolled it and examined it. 'Damn it,' she whispered.

'Do you still have the hair?' Sara said to Greg. He nodded. 'Give it to me. I'm going to have it processed. See if there's any other information we can get from it.'

'Like what?' Warrick said sourly.

'Any medical conditions, for one,' she said impatiently. Seeing their expressions, she said, 'Come on, guys. It's a long shot, but it might work. I'll see to it. Give me the sample, Greg.' She looked around again and said, 'There might be something. Anything we can use.'

* * *

_Well, hopefully it won't take me quite so long to get the next chapter up but I am incredibly busy right now, so I'm not going to make any promises. Hope you enjoyed!_


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